opera and concerts in london and beyond

19 June 2011

It's an 'opera'

Damon Albarn performed a song from his new 'opera' Dr Dee on the Andrew Marr show earlier today - watch here.

The folksy noodling is perfectly inoffensive - but I'm sure I won't be the last to wonder what it's doing at the English National Opera instead of Shepherd's Bush Empire. And whether a pop millionaire should be getting a chunk of ENO's ACE grant to basically make more pop.

8 Comments

Did you see his Monkey:Journey to the West? I thought it was fabulous, and went twice, once with my daughter who wouldn't normally touch opera. It certainly wasn't 'pop', and showed more imagination and originality than much of the ENO repertoire of late. I saw Stewart Copeland's 'operashot' at ROH, and although I enjoyed it and there were some good ideas, that was much more a case of the questionable subsidising of a pop millionaire. I think you should reserve judgement until you see it. I'd much rather subsidise Damon Albarn than stuff like the dreary, wilfully dull and half-empty Midsummer Night's Dream I sat through the other night.

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Intermezzo replies - I haven't said it's bad. And I certainly wouldn't dream of doing so until I'd heard more of it. All I'm saying is it's not opera, and as such is a questionable choice of repertoire for ENO. If an outside promoter wanted to bring it to the Coliseum over the summer, I'd have no problem. But as it is, this work is costing the ENO taxpayers' money, and keeping genuine opera (of which there is precious little to be seen in London) off the schedule during the main season.

I agree that if it's not 'genuine opera' ENO shouldn't be funding it, but maybe it will be - depending on your definition of genuine opera of course. If it is mostly sung in an operatic voice, unamplified and with minimal spoken dialogue, then that's good enough for me. Opera houses have to do something to attract younger audiences, or they'll be empty when we're all dead. The only thing I could find at ENO to take my daughter to this year was The Mikado (does that count as genuine opera?) - I believe the average age at ROH and the Met is now close to 60. As for subsidising millionaires, I guess that would include most composers and directors these days whether they come from a pop background or not.

Well, Operagooner - we all subsidise millionaires through our taxes which they prefer not to pay if possible. Not many art-music composers are millionaires. Not sure about directors, but presumably only the Zeffirellis, Mike Figgises and Terry Gilliams of this world...

"keeping genuine opera (of which there is precious little to be seen in London) off the schedule during the main season"

I'm sure we could all name 20 "genuine operas" that should be produced before Albarn's (or Nico Muhly or Rupert Wainwright's for that matter).

"The Mikado (does that count as genuine opera?)"

No, of course it doesn't, but then you know that I presume.

"Opera houses have to do something to attract younger audiences, or they'll be empty when we're all dead"

Right, so put on pieces that aren't operas then hope they show up for "La Forza del Destino". When has that EVER worked?

"I believe the average age at ROH and the Met is now close to 60"

It's been that way forever outside of Germany and maybe Italy. Opera has *never* been popular with 20-somethings in the English speaking world, where does the idea that it was come from?

But ah! those wily Germans, with their extensive outreach to kids, an entire repertoire of children's operas that are heavily promoted by the regional houses, prices that are affordable for young people (in other words, subsidies) and the lack of dreary class-based issues that addle the British opera scene.

"I guess that would include most composers [snip] these days"

Jesus wept. Right, because almost all composers not named Philip Glass and John Adams teach and/or conduct because they want *less* time to compose!

"Phantom of the Opera" for example, I heard it without amplification by singers using classical technique and although the music is formulaic, any genre is populated by good and bad examples, so the question is, once amplification goes away has a work become an Opera?

Or does the composer has to have a track record of doing "serious" music? Who would decide if the music is serious or not then?

Sorry, but the certainities that the first poster so succintly enounceates are not such. Scratch the surface and everything is nothing but subjective convention and ad hoc labeling.

I really wonder if somebody like Wagner or Mozart would come back from the departed would be so dismissive about works like "Journey from the West" or musicals like "Lion King" or "Phantom of the Opera".

They may laugh their socks off about the music, but I am not entirely sure they would dismiss the whole spectacle as a whole, and most importantly if they would not class it as Opera.

I myself run a little operatic group and more often than not newcomers join with the hope to see musicals, IMHO those of you that think there is no gap to be breached are entirely missing the point of performances like this, which are aimed squarely at people like these.

By bringing works that are approachable for a variety of reasons (the composer, the theme, the kind of music) to opera houses you are breaking a psychological barrier, people are intimidated by the ROH and the Colisseum, showing to new audiences that there is nothing to be affraid about the venue and the experience itself will give them some much needed familiarity with attending these venues, in order not to feel intimidated to go again, when they will have to deal with all the bankers and other posh hangers on parading their "class", which is intimidating on its own right for the low-middle income newcomer.

Although I could not agree more with the sentiment that creating an audience for opera is a labour that should be tackled in the different ways described, the Opera companies can't do this on their own, and I commend them for doing what is on their grasp: bringing new works (populist works if you must rush for your adjectives) for new audiences.

In all honestly I could not care less if the over 60s feel agravated about this, it is not like if the whole season has been given to Gorillaz retrospective...

@Henry Holland, I agree that opera houses shouldn't put on pieces that aren't operas. However it is possible to attract a younger and more diverse audience by including productions that involve figures from popular culture, or tackle 'contemporary' subjects (e.g. Anna Nicole). Also, as JM said, if ROH and ENO can show people that these venues are not as stuffy and exclusive as they might think, they may go more often.

Damon Albarn's piece may turn out not to be opera, in which case complaints will be justified, but we shouldn't jump on every attempt to popularise opera before we know their true nature.

I also agree that opera in Britain has never been full of 20-somethings, but there certainly used to be more 30 and 40-somethings. Some effort needs to be made to address this problem, or opera houses may be forced to stage more non-operatic events to subsidise the dwindling audience for 'genuine opera'.

And I disagree that The Mikado is 'of course' not a genuine opera. The works of G&S may be light, comic, short and sometimes not presented as opera, but if you think Jonathan Miller's production was not worthy of being staged at ENO then I feel your definition of opera is too narrow.